Notre Dame reverses curse

COLLEGE HOCKEY

COLLEGE HOCKEY

December 03, 2006|STEVE WOZNIAK Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- For nearly two and a half periods Saturday night, the Notre Dame hockey team looked cursed. They outshot, outplayed, outhustled and outhit No. 14 Alaska, but were still staring at a 1-0 deficit brightly glaring from the scoreboard. Ryan Thang's short-handed, one-handed goal changed that, and the fifth-ranked Irish exploded for three goals in a two-minute span to rally for a convincing 3-1 victory over the team that eliminated them from last year's CCHA playoffs on this same Joyce Center ice. Notre Dame goalie David Brown stopped 21 of Alaska's 22 shots, and Brett Blatchford and Mark Van Guilder added tallies as the Irish (11-3-1, 6-2-1 CCHA) posted their third win in four games against ranked teams this season. Notre Dame split a series with then-No. 4 Michigan State two weeks ago, and beat then-No. 1 Boston College back on Oct. 20. "I thought we stuck to our game plan the whole night," said Irish coach Jeff Jackson. "It's just a matter of being relentless for 60 minutes, and I think they did that tonight." "I decided to try something new and put Ryan Thang on the penalty kill instead of T.J. Jindra, and that worked out pretty well," added Jackson. Alaska coach Tavis MacMillan was obviously not as upbeat. "In the third period, we just didn't compete," said MacMillan. "We had some guys, who for lack of a better word, played like chickens---s. "If you're not going to have some courage and go into the corners for pucks, you shouldn't be here. You shouldn't be playing Division I hockey if you're not going to compete like that." The Irish outshot Alaska, 34-22. Alaska (6-3-4, 4-2-3) escaped with a 1-0 lead after a very strange first period. It started when instant replay turned a 1-0 Irish lead into a 1-0 lead for the Nanooks instead. At the 8:56 mark, Alaska winger Ryan Muspratt fired a wrist shot from the right circle that looked like it banged off the crossbar and kicked out to the left circle. Muspratt and his teammates thought it had gone in the net, and began to celebrate. The Irish corraled the puck and, with the Nanooks still confused and dumbfounded, quickly moved up ice on a 4-on-2 rush. Garrett Regan tipped Jason Paige's shot past Nanooks goalie Chad Johnson into the net to start an Irish celebration. But Alaska forward Curtis Fraser immediately began protesting to referee Matt Shegos that Muspratt's shot seconds earlier had indeed hit under the bar and crossed the goal line. After reviewing the play, Shegos credited Alaska with the goal, nullifying Regan's subsequent tally. "It hit my face mask, and then I heard it hit a bar behind me," said Brown. "I didn't know which bar it hit." "It looked obvious from where I was on the bench," said Jackson, who then tried to explain the weird bounce: "It must have hit the back bar." Notre Dame finally registered an official goal at the 9:14 mark of the third period when Thang scored short-handed for his seventh tally of the year. Just 30 seconds later, the Irish took their first lead of the night when Blatchford scored his first collegiate goal by taking a feed from Regan to the right of the crease and snapping one high past Johnson. Ninety seconds after that, the Irish went two goals up when Van Guilder took a centering pass from Dan Kissel and scored on a snap shot from the slot while he was falling over backward. Notre Dame and Alaska finish the series tonight at 7:05. NOTRE DAME 3, ALASKA 1 Alaska 1 0 0 -- 1 Notre Dame 0 0 3 -- 3 FIRST PERIOD: UA, Ryan Muspratt (Curtis Fraser, Darcy Campbell) 8:56 Penalties: UA, Dion Knelsen (checking from behind) 1:51; ND, Christiaan Minela (tripping) 16:24; UA, Jordan Emmerson (interference) 18:52. SECOND PERIOD: No scoring Penalties: ND, T.J. Jindra (delaying) 6:47; ND, Michael Bartlett (delaying) 6:47; UA, Kyle Greentree (delaying) 6:47; UA, T.J. Campbell (delaying) 6:47; ND, Jason Paige (highsticking) 18:56; UA, Fraser (highsticking) 18:56. THIRD PERIOD: ND, Ryan Thang (Michael Bartlett, Tom Sawatske) sh 9:14; ND, Brett Blatchford (Garrett Regan, Kevin Deeth) 9:44; ND, Mark Van Guilder (Dan Kissel) 11:14 Penalties: UA, Brandon Gawryletz (cross-checking) 5:06; UA, Jordan Emmerson (roughing) 5:06; ND, Minella (roughing) 5:06; ND, Jindra (tripping) 7:18; ND, Kissel (hooking) 14:38; UA, Aaron Lee (hooking) 17:42. Shots on goal: UA 10-6-6 -- 22, ND 17-10-7 -- 34; Power plays: UA 0-for-3, ND 0-for-3; Goalies: UA Chad Johnson (34 shots, 31 saves), ND David Brown (22, 21); Att.: 2,178.